african drylands institute for sustainability

Cloud computing is a nascent but fast growing innovation that has attracted increasing attention from both
researchers and practitioners as a new Information Technology (IT) paradigm. Cloud computing cannot be
sufficiently understood as a standalone phenomenon in the IT market, but rather as a core ingredient of a larger
transformation of the IT industry that impacts the entire IT ecosystem. Due to the change from enterprise
computing to cloud computing, organizations and individuals need to develop new skills and competencies.
Extant literature in cloud computing has mainly focused on its affordances and challenges with scant attention
given to organizational resources that enable efficient and effective adoption. This paper addresses how
organizations can identify their own local cloud adoption challenges and how to overcome those challenges by
developing new competencies. The paper draws on resource-based theory to propose new organizational
competencies required for seamless migration from enterprise computing to cloud computing. This study was
conducted through an extensive review of academic publications on cloud computing as well as professional
literature such as industry white papers and technical reports.
Keywords: Cloud computing; Resource based theory; Cloud competencies; Service models; Delivery Models;
Cloud brokerage.

In order to benefit from eLearning, institutions should conduct considerable up -front analysis to assess their eLearning readiness. Studies show that there are numerous models that have been developed, however, they are used in developed counties whose eReadiness is high hence not applicable in developing
countries. This paper includes a model that has been developed to assess eLearning readiness of lecturers from institutions of higher learning in Kenya. It investigates the eLearning readiness of lecturers from the University of Nairobi, and the objective was to carry out a diagnostic eLearning readiness assessment of lecturers and determine the factors that influence eLearning readiness. The questionnaires were administered to the lecturers. The results obtained indicate that an overwhelming majority are ready. In addition, the study results show that there is no significant relationship between age, gender, and level of education on eLearning readiness.The study results indicate that technological readiness is the most
important factor followed by culture readiness. Most of the lecturers felt that more training on content development need to be conducted. In conclusion, the lecturers are ready for eLearning but the ICT infrastructure is not adequate enough to support the use of eLearning.

E-Procurement is more than just a system for making purchases online. Some companies implement e-procurement and succeed while others fail. This study was carried out on the adoption of e-procurement among large scale manufacturers in Nairobi, Kenya. The study had three objectives: To ascertain the extent to which large scale manufacturers in Nairobi have adopted e-procurement; to determine the critical success factors influencing the success of e-procurement in large manufacturing firms in Nairobi and to establish the challenges that face e-procurement adoption in large scale manufacturing firms in Nairobi. The research involved a cross-sectional survey of the large manufacturing companies operating in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive approach in trying to establish the factors that influence the success of e-procurement projects. A sample size of 46 respondents was selected from a list of 455 large manufacturing companies. Data was collected from the respondents through a questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS and presented in tables. The study revealed that majority of the large scale manufacturers in Nairobi, Kenya has adopted e-procurement with the following e-procurement practices: online advertisement of tenders, receiving online submission of proposals for the tenders, and short listing suppliers online among others. The five critical success factors identified were: employees and management commitment to success of adoption; reliability of information technology and supplier performance; monitoring the performance of e-procurement systems;
user acceptance of e-procurement systems and top management support. The challenges established are: resistance to change from employees, lack of e-procurement approval by company board, existence of old IT equipment among the firms that need overhaul and lack of managerial support. The study recommends that large scale manufacturers in Nairobi need to incorporate all the e-procurement activities into the system; they need to find out ways of encouraging employees to make use of e-procurement systems as well as find ways of addressing the factors that are critical to the success of e-procurement. This will enable them to improve adoption of e-procurement.
Keywords: Critical Success Factors, Challenges, E-Procurement, Adoption, Manufacturing Firms, Kenya

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